Too much of everything

Fresh and Exciting

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

A professional poker player happens upon a badly injured man in a crashed car and takes him to the hospital, not knowing that the unfortunate gent had been the victim of an assassination attempt. The killers suspect that the dying man must have given out some incriminating information about them and their government employers and set out to make the gambler their next target.Like a few other French thrillers before it, this film certainly owes some debt to Alfred Hitchcock with its story of an innocent man thrust into the middle of a dangerous situation where criminals try to hunt him down and kill him. It's not the most original of story-lines but this fast-paced film remains an enjoyable watch. There is enough action and incident punctuated through its run-time to ensure it never gets boring, such as an exciting car chase through the streets of Paris, a keyhole assassination, an attempted drowning on a crowded beach and a little bit of nudity courtesy of Italian actress Dalila Di Lazzaro who will be familiar to Euro genre fans for her roles in cult items such as Phenomena (1985). But it's really Alain Delon's movie ultimately. The role probably doesn't stretch him too much but he is quite a cool actor and holds things together pretty well I thought. On the whole, I found this to be a very enjoyable movie; it may not have brought anything especially new to the table but it did the job well enough for me.

Talking to a DVD seller about French cinema,I found out that he has recently picked up some titles starring Alain Delon.With having heard of Delon for years,I decided to join him in tracking down the 3 men to kill.The plot:Driving to his weekly poker game, Michel Gerfaut finds a man,lying in a car covered in blood.Rushing him to the hospital, Gerfaut discovers that it was all too late.Wondering about why that man was killed, Gerfaut gets caught in the cross fire and becomes a target for the killer.Due to the mysterious man selling faulty missiles. (next time try before you buy!) his former buyers set off a missile at Gerfaut.View on the film:Opening with a missile blasting on the screen,co-writer/(along with Christopher Frank and actor Delon) director Jacques Deray & cinematographer Jean Tournier smudge the movie in 80's cream. Heating the action scenes up in splatters of burning crimson,Deray digs into the early days of the decade with chic stylization,by painting the streets and Gerfaut's slick clothes in pristine white which give the wacky car chases and gun fights a real pop.Spun from Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel,the screenplay by Deray/Frank and Delon sadly lacks the over exaggerated sparks of the directing style,due to largely keeping most of the plot vague and confused,until a sharp Film Noir twist gives the flick the desired bite.Joined by a sweet Dalila Di Lazzaro (who also appears topless) Delon gives a good performance as Gerfaut,with Delon taking advantage of his chiseled looks to cast Gerfaut in a rebellious atmosphere,as Gerfaut tries to avoid the 3 men to kill.

Ultimately this is surely much ado about nothing but Delon is great, Dalila Di Lazzaro plays his girlfriend and if she doesn't smoulder quite as she does in 1977s, 'The Pyjama Girl Case, she certainly does well enough to hold one's attention. Indeed, I found this likable from the very start, as we struggle to work out what is going on, only to eventually discover that most of those in the film are similarly confused. The Gaullist figure at the centre of things, who is probably more confused and deluded than anyone else, is great fun and although this tough, sexy, thriller is by no means a comedy, there are some nice touches that raise at least a smile. Always involving, ever moving with some excellent sequences, this keeps you guessing till the end.

I liked this, some negative comments on this board notwithstanding... I thought the action scenes were not bad for an 80s movie. It's obviously an attempt to make a Hollywood-style action flick. While there were probably better action/thriller flicks made in the 80s, I can think of many, many worse ones! Having seen it for the first time when I was 18, the high point quite obviously was Dalila Di Lazzaro's chest, a memorable scene… :) I bought a VHS copy on Ebay a few years ago, in German – that's all I could find.What was the car he drove at the beginning of the movie, by the way? A Lancia Gamma.As for the comment about Delon wearing white socks with black pants, that actually was considered somewhat fashionable in Europe of the 80s…. :)